Rilwan Akanbi, Fatimo Bello emerge champions at 2021 NTTF national championship

Rilwan Akanbi came from two sets down to emerge the winner of the 2021 National Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) national championship men’s singles event.

In the keenly contested match that sent the Molade Okoya-Thomas hall bouncing with cheers from excited fans, Akanbi, who represented Atinuke club of Lagos, had to wrestle his way back against Taiwo Mati (Ondo) to secure a nervy 4-3 win.

He lost the first two sets 7-11, 8-11 but got his groove after that to win the next three sets 11-6, 11-6, 11-9.

Akanbi then sealed the triumph with another 11-9 after Mati had taken the fourth set.

“When I was two sets down, I had to tell myself: ‘even if I will lose, I would try my best.’ Because I believe going down by two sets shows I’ve played my best, so I gave it my best,” Akanbi told TheCable.

Similarly, Fatima Bello of the G20 Club of Abuja emerged as the winner of the women’s singles event. She defeated Bose Odusanya of Lagos state 4-1 in what appeared to be a one-sided final.

Bello dominated the match from the first serve, winning the first two sets 15-13, 11-9. Although Bose won the third set 11-8, it wasn’t enough to stop her opponent who won the two other sets 11-5 and 11-1 to secure the victory.

Bello, who also won gold at the women’s table tennis event at the recently concluded 2020 National Sports Festival in Edo, said she had to dig into her coach’s wealth of advice to defeat her opponent.

“I had lost to her 3-1 in the team’s event, so I had to talk to my coach to teach me some tricks to defeat her,” she said.

In the cadets’ division, 15-year-old Samuel Boboye of Bayelsa won three straight sets (12-10,11-3, 11-9) against Matthew Kuti of Lagos to win the boys’ singles event, while Cross River’s Hope Udoaka, 14, got the better of Aisha Rabiu of Lagos to win the girls’ event.

Winners in men and women singles events will take home N250,000 each, while U-21 and cadet champions will earn N100,000 and N50,000 respectively.

Quarter-finalists in each of the events will be rewarded with a minimum of N50,000 each.